


Stood With You Against the Storm

by TheFandomLesbian



Series: Angela's Raulson One-Shots [32]
Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Angst, Blind Cordelia, F/F, Fluff, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Romance, Smut, foxxay - Freeform, goode-day, pre-Seven Wonders, raulson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 10:31:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17506910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFandomLesbian/pseuds/TheFandomLesbian
Summary: Though she swore to leave the house due to its bad vibes, Misty can't bear to leave a woman in distress. She fights off the axe man and rescues Cordelia, igniting a night of uncertainty and passion between the two of them.





	Stood With You Against the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TomorrowNeverCame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomorrowNeverCame/gifts).



> For two prompts: "Coven canon divergent pre seven wonders prompt where Misty doesn’t leave the academy and ends up being the one to save Cordelia from the axe man," and, "Misty transmutes a claustrophobic/cooped up blind Cordelia to her swamp to get her away from Fiona and her responsibilities for a day/night and get her some fresh air."
> 
> Keep an eye out for a similar story by TomorrowNeverCame, who will also be working with this concept at some time in the future!

“When I stood with you against the storm  
And I tried once again  
_Well, I said, ‘I'd like to leave you  
_With something warm.’” -Stevie Nicks, “The Nightmare”

...

“I thought you were looking for your tribe.”

Misty raised an eyebrow at Zoe’s sharp quip. Zoe had a point, alright--she had spent years looking for someone else like her, for someone who understood. She found them, the witches. But, as she swept them with her gaze, she knew they were not hers to keep. How could they be? Misty had fled the only life she had ever known to escape death. Zoe had found her twice, now, both times seeking help for a formerly dead person. She could smell the magic on the woman she had recovered and buried. These witches apparently couldn’t manage to stop getting each other killed. She preferred herself alone and alive to dead with friends.

After all, even Stevie needed to leave her tribe for awhile when it all got to be too much. A strong witch had a solo career. “I was. And I am.” Zoe pursed her lips in confusion. “This ain’t it. I got bad vibes.” Something evil exhaled from the house, something dark and cruel and vindictive and all the things Misty actively sought to avoid. Her intuition had never led her astray before. Her grandmother had told her always to trust herself, and she did. The house had eyes in its walls. “Real bad. There’s something foul in this house.” _If I stay here, it’s gonna kill me. It’s gonna take the last breath in my body. I ain’t having it._

Zoe and Queenie exchanged a glance. Neither of them attempted to contradict her. They knew the truth. “We need to stay with Madison,” Queenie said. “You sure you got everything you want? You can take a shower or something.”

Misty had done worse things than hitchhike in her life. “Shower’s tempting,” she agreed. “Then I’ll be outta your hair.” Part of her wondered if she ought to move somewhere that the coven couldn’t find her. _Nah. They’ll probably need somebody else brought back to life before long._

Where the other witches went, Misty didn’t know; she kept her bag of things on the floor in the bathroom alongside the change of clothes Zoe had given her. They weren’t her style, but they would get her back to the swamp. She didn’t have the liberty to have a style, now, she supposed, being officially homeless without electricity or running water. The warm water from the shower was a novelty she hadn’t known in over a month, and stepping out from under it into the steam of the room filled her with yearning. Misty loved her life in the forest, but she missed twenty-first century hygiene.

She donned the T-shirt and stained hoodie Zoe had given her and swept her hair out of the hood. The sweatpants fit loosely. She pulled the string taut and slipped back into her boots. Emerging from the bathroom, she glanced left and right in search of the other girls, wherever they had gone with Madison. She didn’t see them. But a shriek pierced the air.

Heart leaping into her throat, Misty grabbed her napsack and headed toward the stairs. “Hell, no.” A shower was not worth dying over, but she knew how to get the hell out of dodge before anybody knew any different. The darkness of the house wrapped around her and consumed her, threatening to swallow her whole. She wanted nothing to do with the darkness here or any of the people it already had in its clutches.

The scream echoed again, a woman’s wailing voice, followed by a man’s distinct, grizzled laugher. Misty’s drumming footsteps on the stairs halted at that sound. _She’s with a man._ Sucking her lower lip, she hesitated. The other girls dashed down the hallway to Cordelia’s room. The woman screamed again. “Cordelia!” Misty’s heart couldn’t take the sound of a damsel in distress. “It’s locked!”

Misty ran to them, her napsack tossed on her shoulder. “The hell do you mean, it’s locked? You’re witches!” Zoe and Queenie continued to jiggle the door handle uselessly, like the weathered lock would break if they kept trying. They ignored her.

“It’s the axe man.”

“You released him?”

Neither of them acknowledged what Misty had said. “I said I would! I lied!”

The bundle of witches raced away. Cordelia belted out another scream. From within the room, the sound of clattering furniture and shattering glass burst. Misty turned on her instinct to follow the girls. “Now dance,” growled a dark voice from within the room. All of the hair on the back of Misty’s neck stood up--pure evil exhaled from the man. _I’ve gotta help her._

Taking a step back, Misty dropped her napsack on the floor and kicked upward with all of her strength. The door handle snapped off, but it was still stuck in the frame, rattling as she slammed against it with her shoulder. The old house was not made to cave under slight pressure. “Alohomora!” she screamed at the door. She hoped it would work. It didn’t. “Oh, fuck this.” Circling back, Misty gave herself room for a running start. Another scream burst from the room. “I’m coming!” She charged at the door. Leaping off of the floor, she plunged with both heels into the side of the door. It buckled. She slid into the room on her side, a baseball player aiming for home. “Get away from her!”

The man swung on her. “About time I get a little bit of attention up in here.” He swung a shiny axe in one hand. Misty leapt to her feet. She grabbed a chair and held it up. “You’re not the one who knows me, are you?” The man’s black aura breathed off of his skin like smoke. “You’re not the one who owes me.” He wielded his axe at her. “So you’re just in the way.”

Misty held up the chair and caught the axe in its legs, knocking it back but not out of his hand. “Don’t you touch her!” Everything her father had ever taught her about physical combat came back to haunt her now. _Daddy never said my opponent would have an axe and I would have a wooden chair._ She charged him with the legs of the chair pointed at him, a bull with its horns prepared to gore the unsuspecting passenger of its field. It brought her closer to Cordelia. She had heard the name in passing from the other witches, but for the first time, she saw the face of the headmistress. Mutilated pink skin crossed her face. Marbled blue eyes peeked out at Misty where acid had stripped all of the pigment from her irises. _She’s blind._ “Are you okay?”

Buffering lips and a trembling chin met her question. “Who are you?”

 _Oh. Right._ Misty had entirely forgotten that Zoe had brought her here as a secret. She held up the chair as the axe man swung at her again. She hurled the chair at him to deflect his axe. It whooshed through his solid body. “What the _fuck_ is up with this guy?” The chair landed on the other side of him, broken on the floor. The man smirked at her with his salt and pepper hair, looking all too coy for his own good. Misty backed up in front of the table beneath which Cordelia hid--the man had cornered her and left her nowhere to run, nowhere to escape.

Cordelia whimpered audibly. “He’s a ghost! He’s dead!” she blubbered. _I’m gonna die in here._ The notion had struck Misty when she first entered the house. These walls had power she knew not, and it was a dark power. Reaching behind her, she grabbed a ceramic vase from the table and wielded it like a glass beer bottle by the neck. _If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna do it protecting a woman._

He swung the axe. She moved sideways and allowed the blade to plunge into the wall. The moment of it burying into the wood gave him just enough pause for her to smash the vase over his head. At the sound of the exploding vase, Cordelia cried out, shrinking back under the table. He staggered back, cursing. “You can’t hurt me, witch! Your fight is futile!”

“Don’t mean I ain’t gonna give it my best shot.” Misty seized another vase off of the table. The brandished axe caught it and smashed it.

He reached for the last one and smashed it with a dark chuckle, holding contact with her eyes. “You out of ideas now, little girl?” His eyes were deep pools of hatred and filth. Misty held out her hand. A fire poker whistled toward her from across the room. It landed in the palm of her hand. “Oh, that’s new for you!” _Yeah, it is._ Misty fenced at him like she held a sword in her hand instead of a piece of flimsy metal. “Little spitfire, are you? I can have some fun with this!”

The tip of the fire poker caught on the blade of his axe. Misty glared at his hand as she snatched back against him. His fingers pried open against his will. She flung the axe across the room. It smashed against the wall and landed on the floor. “Ha!”

The axe man’s brawny hand closed around the fire poker. He dragged her close to him and tossed the weapon away. She staggered, unbalanced, and he took the opportunity to grab her by the hood of the sweatshirt Zoe had given her. She whirled. A cold hand closed around her throat. “Uh--” Both of her hands floundered at his, pulling desperately at him as he hoisted her up by her neck. Her feet left the ground. Her throat closed. She couldn’t make a sound except for the deep slurp noises twisting from her body.

The sniveling voice of the woman rose up as she crawled out from under the table. “Don’t hurt her! I’m the one you want!” Misty’s wide eyes darted away from the man’s face to Cordelia’s, her lips slightly parted. _I’m fighting for her._ Her tunnel vision gradually grew darker. Cordelia, a woman she didn’t know, was willing to sacrifice herself--just as Misty had done by running in here. _I’m saving her._

Warmth moved through the axe man’s arm. Blood coursed through his veins once again. Something, some spell, had made him corporeal and mortal once more. Misty’s parted lips opened a little wider. Magic stirred hot and heavy within her abdomen and twisted up through her chest. Her jaw dropped. It touched the top of his fist. Flames bellowed out of Misty’s mouth. At the first flash of heat, he dropped her. Misty dropped to the floor, choking and gagging and gasping. Soft hands sweet as honeycomb patted around her body as she caught her breath.

The stench of smoke filled the room. The axe man, his clothing on fire, staggered across Cordelia’s bed. He howled, an animal in pain. The magic which had made him corporeal had given him mortality. He rolled across the floor. The curtains caught fire, as well; the flames leapt from one to the other. “Are you okay?” Cordelia’s voice was ragged.

Misty staggered to her feet. The smoke clouded around her. She held an arm over her mouth. “C’mon.” Blots of blackness in her vision dizzied her. “Get on my back--Hold onto me.” The heat from the flames and the soot exhaling from the flickering lights of orange stung her eyes. Cordelia grappled with her shoulders. Misty slipped her arms under the legs of the nearly naked woman and ducked her head as she ran through the flames. The fire caught onto the bottoms of her sweatpants. She stomped it out and pretended her skin didn’t itch. On her back, Cordelia buried her face into Misty’s hair. Misty ran toward the staircase. With each step, Cordelia jostled on her back. Overhead, the sound of splintering wood and spreading fire pursued them like a lion on its prey. “Which way is out?”

Bare arms wrapped around Misty’s neck, clinging desperately to her as she felt herself slipping. Misty tightened her hold on her. “Misty,” Cordelia breathed to her ear. _I didn’t tell her my name._ “It’s--to the right--” Cordelia’s shorts rode up where her legs wrapped around Misty’s middle. Misty grasped her bare thighs. She followed Cordelia’s directions, bowing her head downward to avoid the stinging blackness of the smoke encroaching around her. The flavor of soot on her tongue was a familiar scalding by now, something she revisited in her nightmares.

The front door gaped ajar, pouring smoke into the starry sky. Misty jogged through the door frame. The cold night air swept her up into its arms. The moon itself reached for her, its daughter, and cradled her in its yellow light. She staggered down the steps and stumbled through the grass, almost losing her footing but managing to remain upright. Her arms and back ached with the strain of carrying Cordelia.

The lights in the greenhouse guided her toward the building, outside which the other witches loitered. “You made it!” The cluster of witches approached. Misty leaned back and released Cordelia, letting her place her bare feet on the dewy earth. “How’d you get out? Are you okay?”

Kyle, rocking himself and moaning, danced around Misty with his arms extending and retracting and extended again. “I’m alright, Kyle--I’m alright--” The zombie-like man still insisted on giving her a hug in his strong arms, which Misty reciprocated with a grimace. He smelled like sweat. “Hey, now, no need for tears… Nobody’s hurt.”

“Does anyone have a cigarette?”

Cordelia’s hand closed around Misty’s bicep. “Madison?” she asked in a soft voice. Goosebumps coursed up and down her arms and legs. The cold night air had done no favors for her. She folded her other arm across her chest. “Where have you been? Who is this?” She shivered.

Misty shed the long sweatshirt Zoe had given her and handed it to Cordelia. “Here.” She pulled it over Cordelia’s head for her and guided her arms through the sleeves. “Don’t worry about Kyle. He’s a friend--long as you don’t expose him to none of your valuables. He’s a _ouragan_ , but he means well.” A few hours ago, she never would have guessed she would find herself speaking in Kyle’s defense, but now, much as she was angry with him for destroying her few cherished objects, she couldn’t imagine leaving Kyle to be homeless.

The night wind blew her hair back out of her face as she turned back to look at the academy as it leapt into flames. _I think I made all of them homeless._ “Fiona will fix it,” Cordelia told her, grasping Misty’s arm still. She pulled the hem of the sweatshirt down over her lower body, trying to cover more of her exposed skin. “Fiona will know what to do.”

“ _Fiona_ isn’t answering her phone,” Queenie snapped.

“We’ve got to hide Madison before she shows up,” Zoe said. “She’s safer that way.”

“What about Kyle?” Nan asked. “Fiona won’t let him stay.”

“What _about_ Kyle?” Madison demanded. “You all don’t seriously think Fiona is going to be able to put the house back together? We’re all fucked. Royally fucked. Fiona is going to run away, like she always has, and we’re going to be sleeping on the streets.” She lifted a cigarette to her lips and blew a thin stream of smoke from between them. Coughing brokenly, she appraised Misty through narrowed eyes. “I think you should’ve left me wherever the fuck I was.”

Misty crossed her arms and placed a hand on top of Cordelia’s. She didn’t have anything to say. This wasn’t her fight. “You were dead?” Cordelia extended her other hand to Madison.

Madison hesitated, glancing back at Zoe. “Do it.” All pairs of eyes landed on Madison. “She’ll See what happened to you. So we can keep it from happening again.” _See._ It was unfamiliar to Misty, the concept, but Cordelia had touched her and learned her name--and her powers. She knew Misty had brought Madison back to life. What else did she know? What else had she Seen?

It was a question she wanted to ask, but as Madison’s palm touched Cordelia’s, the blind woman gave a soft gasp. Her marbled eyes rolled backward, the scarred tissue over them twitching. Her hand tightened its grip on Misty’s arm, as if holding onto her for support, and when Madison withdrew, Cordelia swayed. Misty tried to steady her. “Fiona _can’t_ know that you are here.” Her fingers dug into Misty’s upper arm. “Fiona is willing to kill to keep her powers. To keep the Supremacy. Which means she could see any one of you as a threat or a target. She feels safe as long as she believes Madison is dead.”

Madison arched an eyebrow. “So you just expect me to play possum indefinitely?”

“Fiona killed you once,” Zoe said. “She might try to do it again.”

“Who’s gonna stop her from killing another one of us?” Queenie asked.

They all exchanged glances before they looked at Misty. Misty shuffled her weight awkwardly from foot to foot. “No offense or anything, but… y’all got a problem of killing each other.” _A little problem._ Misty’s mouth curled downward at the corners. “I don’t want no part of it. They played burn the witch back home. I’m not coming here to get killed by my own kind.”

Zoe’s eyes were earnest. _Goddammit._ Misty tried to look away from her. “But you’ll help us, won’t you? If one of us gets hurt? Once we identify the next Supreme, we’ll be able to bring Fiona down, and it’ll be safe again. For all of us.” Misty looked at Cordelia. The pretty face of the older woman was all too close to hers. Her heart skipped a beat. She swallowed hard as Cordelia squeezed her upper arm. _Oh, shucks._ These women were the first people of her kind she had ever met. She couldn’t just abandon them. _I can’t just abandon Cordelia._ She had worked to save Cordelia’s life, risking her own in the process. Who was she if she ran away now? “Please, Misty?”

The sound of sirens pierced the air. Misty flinched. She shrugged out of Cordelia’s grasp. “I gotta go.” She could _not_ be here when the police and firefighters showed up. The large, beautiful house would draw media attention, and she couldn’t risk her face appearing on the television, nor could she risk the odds of someone recognizing her and placing her face. The flashing red and blue lights reflected on the houses down the street, around the corner. Misty ducked her head and dashed away.

“Misty!” The first call of her name didn’t slow her. She threw herself into the thin copse of trees which served as a fence between the burning house and the rest of the neighborhood. “Misty, come back!” Hurling herself down into the ravine, she slid down the slope and landed in the mushy pit in its bottom. “Misty, wait!” Cordelia lost her footing at the ravine--how she had made it this far, Misty wasn’t sure--and tumbled down the slope.

Both of her hands closed around Misty’s wrists. Heart thundering in her chest, Misty resisted the urge to jerk away from her. She wouldn’t do that to Cordelia. “I ain’t going back.” Over the hill, the sound of men’s voices echoed. Footsteps crackled through the leaves in the thin copse of trees. The back of Misty’s teeth rattled with magic. “Hold onto me,” she said to Cordelia for the second time tonight. Cordelia threw her arms around Misty’s neck. The vibrations within her soul dragged them inward, through a vacuum, and with a loud _crack_ , they crashed between the corn stalks of Misty’s garden.

The soft soil clung to her clothing. Misty stood, both of her hands on Cordelia’s waist. “You can transmute.” Cordelia held her at arm’s length. In the silvery moonlight filtering through the canopy of swamp trees, she looked no different than anyone else. The trees blocked the cold breeze, but a mist rose off of the water and chilled the air. “Where are we?”

Cordelia’s tangled hair hung around her face. Her tense muscles quivered beneath Misty’s touch. Misty reached around her to pull up the hood over her ears. “My home.” The trees creaked around them. The forest moaned with all of its secret life. The cicadas and crickets hummed in synchronization. The night birds performed their own song, special for Cordelia. Cordelia shivered again. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.” It wasn’t much warmer inside the shack, but Misty had blankets, and the walls deflected the wind. Cordelia held onto her arm. “It’s okay. I won’t let you fall.”

The shack was in the same condition they had left it--the broken tapes on the floor, the cold water in the metal basin stagnant where she had bathed Kyle. “Here.” She helped Cordelia sit on the bed and wrapped her up in some blankets. Taking woolly socks, she put them on Cordelia’s dirty feet one by one. In the darkness of the shack, she, too, was almost blind. She blinked up to Cordelia from below, looking at her silhouette. On the nightstand, a couple unlit candles rested. _I’ve been going through matches like a little kid through cake._ But she had burned the axe man. She knew she had done it--she had set the house aflame. _Can I do it again?_

“Try it.” She still held Cordelia’s feet in her lap. With the encouragement, Misty licked her lips and blinked back toward the candles. What had she done the first time? She had needed to protect Cordelia. She had needed to protect herself. Her hands trembled a little. A tiny flame flashed onto the wick of the candle. “Good job.” Misty stood to take the candle and light the rest of the room, the bare wicks all around the building which she used in the middle of the night. She had had a lantern, but it had broken, and she didn’t have any extra batteries for her flashlight, which she worked to preserve in case of an emergency. “What else can you do?”

“Hm?” Misty put the candle on the nightstand. “I fix dead things. That’s it.” She sat beside Cordelia on the bed. Cordelia scooted over to make room for her on the small mattress. Misty brushed the back of her hand against Cordelia’s absently.

To her surprise, Cordelia wrapped up their fingers together. “But you can start fires.” Misty shrugged. That was a new thing. “And move things.” That was a new thing, too. “And transmute.” She had done that when she met Zoe, but she hadn’t controlled it deliberately. “You’re an incredibly powerful witch, Misty.”

“Aw, nah, I bet tons of y’all are good at all that stuff.”

Cordelia’s eyebrows quirked, and she shook her head. “We’re not. It’s uncommon for a witch to exhibit more than one power. Maybe two in a time of crisis, but--you’ve performed four of the seven wonders.” Misty didn’t know what she meant. She didn’t ask. She hadn’t been so close to another woman in so long; she was busy drinking in Cordelia’s scent as she lay beside her on the bed. “The seven wonders are the test a witch must pass in order to rise to Supreme.”

Eyes widening, Misty shook her head. “Uh-uh. I don’t like this. I ain’t here to be nobody’s leader.” Cordelia folded their fingers together. Her skin was soft and smooth as flower petals. Misty swallowed hard. “I told you, Miss Cordelia. I don’t want any part of this. This ain’t my fight. And it ain’t got to be yours, either.”

Cordelia wasn’t shivering anymore. “Becoming the Supreme isn’t a choice… You can’t escape it by not wanting it.”

“You _ain’t_ dragging me into this mess.” Cordelia opened her mouth, but Misty cut her off before she could speak, her heart thundering in her own ears. “Listen. I helped Zoe with Kyle. And I helped her with Madison. And I helped you--”

“You got into my room when no one else could. How did you do that?”

“I kicked the door down like a muggle.”

Silence followed, but a smile cracked across Cordelia’s face, and she began to laugh. Misty chuckled along with her, fluffing up the pillows to provide them for her. She knew nothing about her shack was comfortable for a city dweller, but she wanted to treat Cordelia the best that she could. “You saved me,” Cordelia whispered, and she put her cheek on the pillow as Misty put it down. She faced her in the dim light. Outside, the wind assailed the shack, whipping and howling, but Misty’s whole body felt like fire now coursed through her veins. “Thank you. You didn’t need to do that.”

A quiet laugh tittered out of Misty. “Nah, don’t be silly. My grandma always told me there was nothing better for a damsel in distress than a dyke with an attitude.” Cordelia’s marbled blue eyes widened, and Misty realized a moment too late that her thoughts had crawled out onto her tongue. Blushing furiously, she hastened to amend her words. “You would’ve done the same--you did. You told him to let me go.”

A hand landed on her hot face. She flinched; she expected to be slapped. But Cordelia’s touch brought her no pain. “It scared me,” Cordelia admitted, “to think that someone could die for me because I’m not strong enough to protect myself… not anymore.” She mapped out Misty’s face with her hands. “I couldn’t live with myself if someone was hurt because of me.”

Misty smiled into Cordelia’s palm. She liked having her face touched. It was intimate. She hadn’t known something so sweet in longer than she could remember. “I just kept thinking that, if he killed me, at least I went down trying to protect a pretty lady.” In the dim candlelight, pink flushed across Cordelia’s cheeks, and Misty grinned at her success. “My daddy taught me how to rip a guy’s nuts off… but I never figured I’d need to fight an axe-wielding ghost. That was new. Hopefully won’t ever need to do it again.”

Stray fingers tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Cordelia pursed her lips. “Have you been out here ever since…?” She drifted off, and Misty nodded into her hand. “Alone?”

Misty shrugged. “Yeah. Safer that way.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t light the match.” Misty tried to forget what gasoline tasted like. She tried to forget what ash tasted like. The flames at the house were a stark reminder of the night she wanted, more than anything, to forget. To forget the pain, the absolute agony, of thrashing until all of the nerve endings in her body were dead and the heat of the flames had charred her lungs and melted her skin, until she finally gave way to death only to find herself dragged back into the shell of her corpse once again--to forget was all she wanted.

Cordelia shook her head. A quiver passed through her. Misty wondered how much of it she had Seen. _Some things are supposed to be mine alone._ “My job,” Cordelia said, “is to find witches and bring them to the academy to protect them. So they can learn who they are and how to control their powers.” Misty adjusted the blankets around Cordelia’s shoulders, trying to bring her warmth, but she knew she had done no good when a single tear slid down Cordelia’s cheek. She caught it on the pad of her thumb and wiped it away. “I was looking for you. Desperately. I _knew_ where you were, the general location, but--I was too late.” She closed her eyes. As she did, more tears fell down her cheeks. Misty dabbed them away with her fingertips. “I lost you when it was my duty to protect you. And I am so, so sorry.”

Misty reached to hug Cordelia, wrapping her up tight and squeezing her. “Nah, Miss Cordelia… It ain’t your fault. You can’t hold the whole world on your shoulders, you know, chere.” Cordelia buried her face in her hair. Misty had lost count of how many times it had happened now--maybe just twice, maybe many more--but she adored it every time. She adored how Cordelia’s caramel-colored hair fell just _so_ on her shoulders and how the movement exposed the freckled skin of her neck. She bowed her face down and pressed a kiss to the junction between Cordelia’s neck and shoulder. _She’s so beautiful…_

In her arms, Cordelia stiffened a little. Misty stiffened in turn, wondering if she had overstepped her bounds, but Cordelia whispered to her ear, “Thank you…” She swept Misty’s hair out of the way and kissed her neck in return. “I’m so glad you found us.”

Cordelia did not carry the same aura as the house or even the rest of the coven. Cordelia was different, warmer, more genuine, kinder. “I’m glad, too.” She combed her hand through Cordelia’s tangled hair. “Especially if nobody else was gonna bust you outta that room with the scary ghost guy.” Cordelia laughed into her neck. Misty closed her eyes and leaned down to kiss Cordelia’s neck again.

Warm hands caught her by the shoulders and pushed her away before her lips connected to her skin. Cordelia held her there, their faces inches apart. “Do it properly.” Cordelia’s lips puckered with uncertainty. Misty bowed forward and planted a tender, chaste kiss onto her mouth. A quiver passed through Cordelia’s body as they connected. Electricity pulled them together and held them fast, wrapping around them, through them.

Their magical signatures intertwined. Cordelia’s mouth opened, and Misty’s tongue wriggled inside. She grabbed Cordelia by the hips, squeezing the fat there. “Mm…” She moaned the soft sound into Cordelia’s mouth. _This is crazy. I barely know her._ Cordelia’s hands both dug their fingers into Misty’s hair and cradled her face there. _Oh, god, I barely know her, and I love her already._ Misty knew she had a heart made of cotton--it was soft and got shredded easily--but this caught her by surprise. She felt something for Cordelia she had never felt before. She supposed that she couldn’t risk her life for a woman without coming out the other side in love with her. “Sorry,” she mumbled into Cordelia’s lips. The kiss broke. “I promise I’m not really as weird as the inside of my head sounds.”

Cordelia laughed. “It’s okay.” She leaned forward and kissed Misty again. “I like you. I like you a lot.” Misty rolled onto her back and pulled Cordelia on top of her. Cordelia lay down on top of her. Her laugh was musical. “I shouldn’t feel this good. I just almost died in a house fire.”

Misty brushed Cordelia’s beautiful hair behind her ear. “You didn’t almost die. I wouldn’t have let that happen.” Cordelia kissed her hard. She tasted like smoke, wisping away from her in the blink of an eye, so Misty held on tighter, afraid Cordelia would try to disappear. The flame in the pit of her stomach licked downward. A knee landed between her legs and stayed there. Misty sucked in a tight gasp of air. “Cordelia--” The blind witch straddled her thigh. Misty gulped. “Are you sure this is what you want?” Misty was in no position to deny Cordelia anything. She had lived these last few weeks the loneliest she had ever been. But Cordelia was a normal woman--and, Misty had assumed until about three minutes ago, a straight woman. “I’m not… I’ve never been… I don’t want you to be…”

Quieting her with another soft kiss, Cordelia pulled back when her buffering lips had stilled. “I want this.” She shivered. “You saved my life. I want this to be here, with you.” Misty touched her face. Cordelia’s blind eyes blinked at the stimulus. “It’s the first time, since…” Cordelia swallowed hard.

Misty kissed her. “I understand.” She sat up and took the hem of the sweatshirt, lifting it off of Cordelia’s body and tossing it to the floor. Placing her bare hands on Cordelia’s warm, soft middle, she waited patiently for Cordelia to roam her torso with shaking fingers. “Take your time.” She played with the fabric of Cordelia’s black bra while Cordelia’s hands roamed the top of her T-shirt. Misty wore no bra. Through the thin fabric of the T-shirt, her nipples hardened into Cordelia’s palms.

Careful hands hooked in the bottom hem of her T-shirt and lifted it upward. Misty moved her arms and wriggled out of the shirt. She wiggled to free herself from the sweatpants, too; Zoe hadn’t given her any panties, so without the two garments, she was bare and prepared for Cordelia. Little twitches of uncertainty passed through Cordelia’s wrists, like she expected Misty’s skin to burn her at any moment. Misty waited patiently. Cordelia’s nose and mouth met the underside of her jaw and kissed there, dragging her lips along her pulse point and down her throat to her collarbones. Her hands followed the planes of Misty’s back to her shoulders. Misty lay down on her back to expose herself for Cordelia.

Both hands cupped her small breasts. She kissed the hollow of Misty’s throat. Then, she hesitated. “It’s alright.” Misty brushed Cordelia’s hair out of her face. “You can touch me--I got naked for a reason.”

A furious blush, much like that of a shamed teenager’s, crossed Cordelia’s face. “I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat. Her hands on Misty’s breasts were still. “I’ve never done this with a woman before.” Misty shuffled on the mattress. “Will you show me?”

“Of course, chere.” With gentle hands, Misty guided Cordelia to roll over onto her back and pushed her onto the pillows. “Relax.” Shaking hands found her hair and tangled there. “That’s right. You want me to stop, you give my hair a good snatch, okay? I’ll knock it off lickety split, whatever I’m doing.” She pressed her lips right to Cordelia’s pulse point. A shaking sound emerged from her. Misty stroked her hands upward and cupped Cordelia’s chest in her hands, rolling her rough thumbs over the other woman’s tender nipples. A sharp breath hitched in Cordelia’s chest. Misty gave her a tender squeeze before she slithered down her body. She landed on Cordelia’s breasts with lips planting sloppy kisses down her sternum.

Misty didn’t waste any time with teasing Cordelia, who quivered and flinched underneath her without anything extra. Her soft lips wrapped around nipple. She suckled gently upon her breast. A thin choking sound emerged from Cordelia’s throat. “That’s so… soft.” Her breath whistled in and out of her. Misty blew a cold stream of air across her wet nipple. It perked up, little bumps appearing all the way around it with creases, as well. She wriggled. Misty chuckled as she settled down in front of the other breast.

Misty took no liberties with Cordelia’s body. She didn’t want to mark Cordelia as hers; they had made no such promises yet. She didn’t dig in her teeth, and she left no bruises. Using only her lips, she teased the underside of one of Cordelia’s breasts, and then she moved down her abdomen, peppering kisses here and there. She planted a kiss on her navel. Hooking her fingers into Cordelia’s shorts, she peeled them off of her body and tossed them away.

The delicious smell of woman rose up to her. Misty kissed the inside of Cordelia’s thigh. Her skin was fuzzy there, above the knee where she didn’t try to shave. Her vulva had tiny cuts and tufts of stubble from where clumsy, blind hands had tried to shave it. Misty waited for some confirmation. Cordelia spread her legs and tugged her by her hair downward, her hips gesticulating vaguely for some kind of relief.

Burying her face into Cordelia’s moist vulva, Misty opened her mouth and made a thick, “Ahm,” sound in the back of her throat. Cordelia laughed aloud, relieving some of the nervous tension inside of her. She wriggled and moaned under Misty’s mouth. With the flat of her tongue, Misty stroked upward over Cordelia’s swollen clitoris. She trembled. Her thighs framed Misty’s face. “Mm…” Misty drew back just long enough to lick her lips before she dove into it again.

“Oh--Misty--” Cordelia arched her back. Her hips refused to still on the mattress. Her hands in Misty’s hair wanted to tighten up. She released her locks and grappled with her own breasts instead, a much safer location for them. “I--Oh, god…”

The sight of Cordelia’s hands on her breast stirred the fire for Misty. Watching her pleasure herself with her nipples pinched between her fingertips--that was a new drug, an addictive substance. As Cordelia’s clitoris grew firmer, more erect, Misty left it. Her lover cried out in frustration. Misty’s tongue slipped into her vagina, raking out all of the sour lubrication and dragging it up to her clitoris. “I can’t--Oh, god…” Cordelia’s vagina tightened visibly. Misty slipped her middle finger into her. “Oh!” It fit with ease. She curled it to stroke the sensitive, thick patch of nerves inside of her. “More--” _As you wish._ Misty hesitated before she curled a second finger into Cordelia. _She’s only done this with men. She’s used to more._ She provided the answer to her demand.

Cordelia’s hips lifted off of the bed into Misty’s mouth. “Yes!” Misty slid her fingers out and pushed them back in, massaging the insides of her vagina. “Yes!” Cordelia’s voice echoed in the small building, and undoubtedly in the trees surrounding, but there was no one to hear but the deer and the birds and the insects. “F-Faster!”

With the tip of her tongue, Misty worked faster at teasing the bulb of her clitoris, following the crus on either side back up to the sensitive nub. Cordelia almost thrashed with the intensity of her feelings. Her vagina contracted around Misty’s fingers. “Mmm!” The first flickering of her walls was like Morse code flitting back to her fingertips. Misty counted the number of squeezes. By the fifth, Cordelia’s thigh and stomach muscles began to relax, and Misty could slip her fingers free. She lingered to lick up all of the acidic fluid Cordelia had produced. Cordelia twitched, sensitive from her forceful orgasm.

Misty slid back up beside her and nuzzled her cheek with the tip of her nose. Cordelia turned her face and kissed Misty on the mouth. Her lower jaw chattered. “That was… That was really good…” She hiccuped. Misty brushed her hands across her pretty face. “Do you--Do you want me to--I might not know--”

Shushing her, Misty took one of her hands. “Just use your hands. Okay?” Cordelia’s arm shivered, but she nodded. Misty placed Cordelia’s hand on top of her bushy pubic mound, the ungroomed hair there growing wild and unruly. She guided Cordelia’s fingers to touch her just as she would touch herself. “Right there…” Misty’s leg muscles tightened as Cordelia’s finger found her clitoris and, with a featherlight touch, trailed up and down it, following the muscle structures and then going back to the bulb. Lying like that, beside Cordelia, face to face, she could taste the other woman’s breath on her tongue.

Cordelia kissed her. Misty wrapped an arm around Cordelia’s neck, holding her close. Cordelia’s mouth opened, leaving room for Misty’s tongue to wriggle inside, and she sucked on the intruding muscle with a thick purr building in the back of her throat. The sound of Cordelia’s sweet sound made all of the hair on the back of Misty’s neck stand up. She was _crazy_ about this woman. She didn’t know how or why, but she wanted nothing more than to protect Cordelia for as long as she lived, with every breath in her body. Had she gone too long without human contact or affection? Or was it something else entirely?

“Sh…” Misty wondered if she was thinking too loudly as Cordelia shushed her. Nose burrowing into Misty’s hair, she inhaled deeply. Misty relished in each gentle touch Cordelia placed on her roughened, weatherworn body. The single finger Cordelia used on Misty’s clitoris moved a little faster. “Do you want more?”

Misty shook her head as she spread her legs. “N-No…” Speaking in complete words was a challenge. She had to work to clear her mind from the overwhelming pleasure crawling up her abdomen and down into her trembling thighs. “Ugh… Cordelia…” Her back wiggled. Her hips turned upward, toward Cordelia’s hand. “This is enough--” The twitching finger moved harder, faster. Misty’s breath hitched. It fanned heavier across Cordelia’s face. Heavy breaths met her in turn. “Ack!”

It had been so long since a woman had touched her like this, she had almost forgotten what it was like to taste another woman’s breath in the back of her throat, an intruder walking into her house and taking a seat on her couch. She never wanted Cordelia to get off of her couch. Spreading her legs further apart, she gazed at Cordelia’s beautiful face in the dim candlelight. Her marbled blue eyes reflected the yellow flames in strange patterns, not like the glossy surface to a regular person’s eyes. _God, she’s so beautiful._ Misty tangled her hands in her hair, pressing her face against Cordelia’s.

Eyelashes against her skin, Cordelia’s eyes flickered closed. Misty peppered kisses across the mutilated pink skin. Cordelia nuzzled upward into her sweet, gentle touches. Her finger moved faster across Misty’s clitoris. “Mm…” Closing her eyes, Misty tensed. She could feel the peak of her orgasm drawing nearer. Cordelia hooked her legs into Misty’s and held them apart. “Oh, fuck--” Misty’s hips began to move back and forth in a seesaw rhythm, driven by the strain teasing all over her body. “I’m--I’m really close,” she gasped to Cordelia, eyes flickering. “It’s right--right there--”

Her body began to tighten. The muscles in her lower back contracted and held fast. Her clitoris twitched. The full force of her orgasm washed over her, exploding stars behind her eyes as tingling rushed from her vagina down her trembling legs and up her spine. “Ugh… Mm…” She drew out a long, growling moan for Cordelia as the orgasm pushed through her.

The finger slipped downward from Misty’s clitoris toward the vestibule of her vagina. Misty tensed--she didn’t want to be penetrated, especially not now, after she had just fallen from the precipice of an orgasm and been left with all of her hypersensitive nerves. But Cordelia didn’t attempt to penetrate her. She scooped up the lubricant Misty had produced. Then, with a bright red face, she stuck her finger into her mouth. Misty chuckled, and she leaned forward to kiss her. “Thank you, chere.”

“Can we stay here?” Cordelia asked in a bare whisper. Blue eyes darted to her, confused by her question. “I know--I _know_ we need to go back, but…”

Misty cupped her cheek in her hand. How desperately she wanted to say yes, to agree that Cordelia could stay out here with her. But the swamp was no place for a city person. How many days would Cordelia go before she was unhappy without a shower? Without warm food? Without cooked meat? “I’m taking you home tomorrow. Them girls need you. They look up to you, even if they don’t realize it. Somebody’s gotta protect them from Fiona.”

“I’ve never even been able to protect myself from Fiona.” Cordelia leaned into Misty’s hand. “Come with me,” she begged. “We _need_ you. You may be the next Supreme--You may be the only one who can stop Fiona.”

Misty was not a fan of the whole Supreme business. She knew she had walked through that house and suffered from the overwhelming notion that she would die there. But Cordelia wanted her. How could she say no? “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, darling… I just want you to be safe.” Holding Cordelia in her arms, she wondered if she had ever guarded something so precious before in her life. She didn’t think so. She had found her tribe. It was Cordelia.


End file.
